Think differently about Nature and heal the human-nature relationship

This week my colleague Tabitha Jayne offers her insights on how to shift the ways we think about nature in order to help shift the human-nature relationship. Tabi is an expert, having devoted her life to listening to the natural world and teaching others how to do so. Please enjoy, and please share this wonderful article.

A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space.

He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.

This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.

Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

– Albert Einstein

When you think of nature, what comes to mind?

Maybe you think of aspects of the natural world such as mountains, trees, animals, and rivers.

Maybe you think of a beautiful landscape or a world that exists independent of humanity and our civilization.

Maybe you even think of nature as wild and savage, or something that is far simpler than the complexities of modern life.

Nature is all of this and more.

Nature is the universe with all its incredible phenomena including stars, galaxies, black holes, and planets.

It’s also the magic at work that holds the universe together and the reality of our existence.

As humanity has evolved, we have forgotten the meaning of nature.

We have reduced it to nothing more than a resource available to us to use as we see fit with no respect or regard for the consequences.

Think about how badly we have treated nature.

We are now waking up to just how badly we have treated nature.

Growing concern about global warming and climate change has put humanity’s focus back on nature and our relationship to it.

The problem is that we view nature from an anthropocentric viewpoint.

How humans have viewed nature.

In the past we studied nature as a way to achieve domination over it.

Today we study global warming and climate change mainly in terms of the impact that it has on human activity.

Whilst we talk about the changes we can make to prevent further damage to the earth, we study the natural environment mainly in terms of how it can benefit humanity.

It’s all about us.

By adopting an anthropocentric viewpoint, we’ve forgotten a fundamental truth of our existence.

We are part of nature.

To once again be in harmony with nature, we don’t need to study it to find out how we can control it for our own benefit.

We merely need to consciously reconnect ourselves to nature and align our thinking with nature’s wisdom.

You might be wondering how to do this. After all, if it was easy wouldn’t everyone be doing it?

This is one of the reasons I created The Nature Process and wrote the book afterwards.

I thought it was pretty simple:

1 – Become present in nature

2 – Drop into your body

3 – Find a part of nature that attracts you

4 – Connect with this part of nature

5 – Allow it to support you as you release all the rubbish that isn’t yours and come back into balance with Nature.

Turns out I was wrong.

It might be simple but it’s not easy. There’s a whole load of human beliefs that stop us from doing this.

What does nature mean to you?

To start your journey into allowing Nature to support you to heal the human-nature relationship you need to know what Nature means to you.

These questions will help you understand why connecting withNature is the secret to human and Earth health and why you’re not accessing the power and potential of your natural self.

What comes to mind for you when you think about Nature?

What adjectives do you associate with Nature?

How much time do you spend connected to Nature?

What do you really think of Nature?

Once you understand the unconscious story you have about Nature you can then start changing it to create a new story that allows you to fully bring the benefits of connecting with Nature into your life.

Tabi is a strategist and paradigm shifter whose vision is to have the Earth recognized as a living, sentient being who is consulted upon all decisions that affect it. She believes that the unity of humanity and the Earth is the catalyst for evolution into a new era of inter-connectedness, collaboration and abundance for all life in Earth. Over the last five years, Tabi has synthesized coaching, eco-psychology (the benefits of a human-nature relationship) and biomimicry (how nature can provide solutions to challenging human problems) into a radical approach that allows business owners and organizations to achieve higher levels of performance through aligning the way they think with Nature to maximize their profit margins, work more effectively and improve their well-being. Tabi is also the creator of The Nature Process®, an online program that has helped hundreds of people around the world discover the power and potential of their natural selves.

You can reach Tabi at Tabi@treeoftransformation.com and http://treeoftransformation.com/